


won't you please believe when i say

by izbabewoods



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Background Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Gen, Lightwood Siblings Feels, M/M, Protective Alec Lightwood, Protective Isabelle Lightwood, Supportive Magnus Bane, The Parabatai We Deserve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 10:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13925031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izbabewoods/pseuds/izbabewoods
Summary: Sometimes, when Izzy is about to go out into the field, he can still taste elastic between his teeth.





	won't you please believe when i say

Izzy looks like a piece of art against the red-gold hues of Magnus' sofa. The bow of her lips, the curve of her eyebrows, the lids of her eyes - all so still and at peace, like she were commissioned from marble. The only give away of life is the steady rise and fall of her chest, exhales and inhales simultaneously balmy and insistent. 

Alec let her hair out after she surrendered to sleep. It cascades over his lap and the side of the sofa, almost spilling to the floor with its length. He is all too familiar with her annoyance upon waking up to knotted braids that seem to cement to her hair and take longer than twenty minutes to brush out. He used to have brush duty when she was little. Izzy's arms, too easily tired, meant it was up to him and his nimble calloused fingers daintily separating locks of hair and brushing out tufts while Izzy would face the mirror and try not to fall back asleep. Izzy running into his room with a brush and a pout because she couldn't get a high pony tail right turned into Alec with the tie caught between his lips and her hair getting caught in his nose.

Sometimes, when Izzy is about to go out into the field, he can still taste elastic between his teeth. 

"You look exhausted, my heart."

Alec closes his eyes as Magnus' hands slide over his chest until his arm are crossed around Alec's neck and his lips are at Alec's ear, pressing a kiss just behind the lobe. He is exhausted, and he imagines Magnus is too, but he can't let his little sister out of his sight just yet. His brain is still flooded with images of the way she had gone down like a puppet with its strings cut just hours beforehand. How Magnus hadn't even hesitated to throw himself at her side and portal the three of them out of there. How Izzy had looked at him with a barely there smile and tears in her eyes as he promised her she'd be fine, that he'd never leave her. Not for anything. 

He follows the line of her cheekbone with his thumb. Elastic floods his mouth. 

"I'll come to bed soon," he murmurs, "I just…not yet". 

Magnus places the most delicate of kisses to his cheek, resting his nose there for a moment, before retracting the warmth of his embrace and making his way to their bedroom. 

Izzy snuffles then, a crease drawing between her brows, which makes Alec frown. He hopes she isn't in great pain. Alec had watched Magnus ease his magic into her himself, and hopes it was enough. 

Alec notices her lips twitch, and her breaths huff, and then settle, succumbing to what he hopes is a fitful sleep. His heart clenches, that same queasy feeling settling low in his gut, making his fists curl and clench. Is it guilt that drives him to wonder if he would be more the apt protector should he have soul-bonded himself to her? Is it regret? Is it the knowledge of an older and wiser Alec who knows in hindsight that his sister deserved the honour, over a brother who tends to continue to act as if such a bond doesn't exist outside of serving his own needs and desires?

These are dangerous thoughts. But nonetheless, he wonders. 

"Don't think so hard, hermano," Izzy groans, expression twisting as she turns on her side with a groan and a wince, "You're preventing my hopes of speedy recovery."

Startled, Alec is sitting ramrod straight with a palm against her forehead before he even responds.

"Do you need anything?" Alec attempts to rearrange the blanket over her form, tries not to dislodge her head from his lap. "Water? Another blanket? Did you want me to get-"

"Alec."

He stops to meet her gaze. She's exhausted, but still manages to scrounge up a look of playful disdain. 

Years ago, she used to make that face at him whenever he tried to play responsible older brother. He'd march into her lab near midnight, careful not to take her by surprise for fear of causing some god-awful chemical to spill; demand she retire to bed. Izzy wouldn't even feign acceptance, just ask for Alec to hand her this or that, render Alec's hard-line approach completely and utterly futile. 

There are barely a handful of things that cause Alec to feel prouder then watching his sister work at the labs. As teenagers, Alec spent hours in there under the false pretence of making sure Izzy got to bed or attended lessons. Izzy would talk Alec's ear off about antibodies, show him countless samples of things he couldn't even comprehend, complain endlessly of blurry microscope lenses and negligent lab partners. 

It's funny how these memories remain strong, in spite of everything they've been through. The almost bored tone of Izzy's teasing defiance. Alec's reluctant surrender. Elastic wedged between his lips. 

"Go to bed," Izzy murmurs, drawing him from his reverie. She turns back onto her other side with a wince, breath leaving her mouth in a huff. "I'll be here when you wake up, I promise."

He longs to make her feel better, wants to see her smile big and wide, pain free. He can almost hear Magnus in his ear. Be patient, he'd say. It will come, with time. 

"Okay," he says, "You better be."

Izzy opens her eyes then, her mirth replaced with an expression as sincere as it is resolute. 

"I won't ever leave you, big brother," she says, "Not by any choice of my own."

And Alec knows. He knows it deep in his soul, as if the knowledge were stitched into his very DNA. He thinks of coloured elastics and pristine white lab coats and dirtied petri dishes and his sister. He thinks of Isabelle, who has never lived a day of her life without making him feel valued. Who makes time for him, even when it seems there are not enough hours in the day to have time. 

"You know I love you." 

It's not framed as a question, but he needs Izzy to know. 

Her face caves, a little. He thinks maybe it's selfish to off load all this inner-turmoil cum-introspection while she recovers from a number of bruised and broken ribs. She reaches her hand skyward to rest her palm on his cheek, thumb tracing the five o'clock shadow he hasn't gotten around to shaving yet. 

"I know," she whispers.

I love you, too, she doesn't say. Alec doesn't want her to. 

"Okay," says Alec. An inhale, "Okay."

Carefully, he manages to manoeuvre himself out from under Izzy, making sure to replace the height his lap provided with a pillow, so she doesn't do her neck in. She looks so damn small now that he is standing up. It makes his heart clench, his head pound; his eyes wet. 

"Sleep?" Izzy enquires, teasing tone back but eyes still shut firmly. Her red-tipped French-manicured toes curl into the sofa cushions, bangled whip glinting in the dulled lamp light.

"Yeah, alright," Alec concedes. "Night, Iz."

Izzy hums, clearly one step away from succumbing to Morpheus' embrace once again. Alec shuffles silently around the room, switching the remaining lights off, putting Izzy's boots in the shoe rack by the entryway. 

"Tell Magnus I want waffles for breakfast."

Alec laughs, short and sharp. He can almost see the half-smile that would be gracing Izzy's lips in the dark, the way she would wrinkle her nose in glee at her own demand. Tell Jace I want to kick his ass, she used to say at seventeen - same half smile, same wrinkled nose. 

Some things never change. Elastic, lab coats; laughter.

Alec makes his way to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> izzy and alec are the parabatai we truly deserve and izzy/alec/magnus is a dynamic i hope the show explores more in season three (not long now !)
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr!](http://www.izzybabewoods.tumblr.com) (prompt me plz)


End file.
